The present invention relates to a shipping arrangement including an improved carton for sheet products and, more particularly, to such an arrangement in which a stack of sheet products is well protected during shipping and may be easily removed from the carton prior to use.
Laser printers have come into increasing use for various printing applications. Such printers are especially well suited to tasks requiring high speed printing of variable information, such as for example printing monthly billing statements and the like, under computer control. While laser printers are extremely fast and reliable, their successful operation depends upon the use of cut sheet or continuous paper stock having a moisture content within rather precisely defined limits.
Paper which is originally produced with the desired moisture content may subsequently absorb additional moisture from its environment during shipping or storage if it is not properly protected. As a consequence, it has become common to wrap stacks of the paper in a polyethylene film, thus providing a moisture barrier. The problem with this arrangement is that the film is difficult to tear or cut, and removing it from a stack of paper sheets is undesirably time consuming. Additionally, a high speed laser printer may typically have a sheet supply hopper capable of holding 2000 sheets, while film wrapped stacks of paper have usually contained only 500 sheets. As a result, the printer operator may be required to open four film wrapped stacks of paper sheets each time the sheet supply hopper is to be refilled.
Yet another difficulty encountered with some laser printer sheet supply arrangements is the inability to feed the bottom sheets in the supply hopper. The sheet supply may not be capable of feeding the bottom one inch of sheets in a stack, for example. It will be appreciated that this results in more frequent refilling of the sheet supply hopper than would otherwise be necessary.
It is seen, therefore, that there is a need for a simple shipping arrangement including an improved carton for a stack of sheet products which provides adequate protection for the products and which permits easy removal of the stack.